Caromarlyse’s log (French/German/Portuguese/Russian/Welsh)

[Caromarlyse]

End of year round-up!

I’ve been pretty absent from the forum this year because I’ve been unwell. As a result I’ve also had to cut back significantly on language learning. I have, however, still been able to keep my hand in, primarily through reading. My focus has shifted to language things that I am able to do and that bring me pleasure, rather than trying to achieve any kind of progress.

FRENCH
I got to the end of the reading portion of the Super Challenge, which I was following unofficially (i.e. keeping count for myself but not properly taking part).

I read:
- Normal people by Sally Rooney
- Il est grand temps de rallumer les étoiles by Virginie Grimaldi
- Simple by Marie-Aude Murail
- Une belle vie by Virginie Grimaldi
- L’élégance du hérisson by Muriel Barbery
- Les possibles by Virginie Grimaldi
- Parler comme jamais by Laélia Véron and Maria Candea
- Coeur du Sahel by Djaïli Amadou Amal
- Discrétion by Faïza Guène

I also continued to listen to podcasts, but also continued to struggle to find things to listen to that I enjoyed. I stopped recording amounts in the summer, but by then I was around two thirds of the way through the “films” part of the Super Challenge. I watched all of the new series of Lupin plus all of Drôle, which is also on Netflix and also very good. I’m going to continue reading in French but will let go of any obligation to listen to anything, just watching/listening to things I find interesting and enjoyable.

GERMAN
I also completed the reading part of my unofficial Super Challenge here.

I read:
- Schwarz wie Erde by Ursula Poznanski
- Grau wie Asche by Ursula Poznanski
- Rot wie Feuer by Ursula Poznanski
- In ewiger Freundschaft by Nele Neuhaus
- Herzschuss by Andreas Föhr
- Fünf by Ursula Poznanski
- Blinde Vögel by Ursula Poznanski
- Stimmen by Ursula Poznanski
- Schatten by Ursula Poznanski

As last year, there wasn’t much breadth in my reading! I did enjoy the books though. I also continued to listen to a lot of podcasts. I was about two thirds of the way through the Super Challenge when I stopped recording my time, but I suspect I completed the challenge given the amount I continued listening to after that point. Not that it really matters! I also made a new German friend, so that gives me more exposure and practice more naturally.

PORTUGUESE
I read three books:

- A próxima pessoa que você encontra no céu by Mitch Albom
- Eleanor Oliphant está muito bem by Gail Honeyman
- Segredos da família by Liane Moriarty

This takes me to 30% of a full Super Challenge for the reading part. However, I did start to get pretty comfortable with reading in Portuguese, which is a win. I’m definitely going to continue with this reading in the new year. The only issue is that there seem to be far fewer Portuguese language e-books available compared with French and German, and it’s more difficult to find even those that are available. When I do find something I want to read, it’s generally a translation. However, It’s all good practice and I have got a few more lined up, which should keep me going for the first few months at least.

​​I only got 62% through the “films” part of the Super Challenge. I listened to some podcasts and watched the films O matador, Cabras da peste, Esposa de aluguel, AmarElo: é tudo pra ontem, Tudo bem no Natal que vem (again), Kardec, Depois do universo, Pelé, Carnaval, 7 prisioneiros (again), Jonas, Que horas ela volta, O vendedor de sonhos, Chatô, and Barba, cabelo, e bigode. I haven’t listened to anything in the past six months, though… Having said that, it’s much easier to read at the moment, so I’m happy to continue with that focus.

I did continue to work through the textbook I had already started using last year, and will continue to do so, albeit slowly.

RUSSIAN
This is the language that has really suffered from my difficulties this year.

I read:
- Если бы она знала by Blake Pierce
- След смерти by Blake Pierce
- Комфортная книга by Matt Haig


I did manage to exceed the target for the listening portion of the Super Challenge, albeit thanks to a lot of Russian with Max content!

I wasn’t able to keep up with classes from the summer onwards, and couldn’t do any textbook study. I’m unlikely to be in a position to rectify this in the new year, as disappointing as it is; I will have to content myself with listening/watching. I have tentatively started watching Лучше, чем люди, and I think that will be a good series to continue with, along with getting back to listening to/watching Russian with Max and similar podcasts and videos regularly.

WELSH
I wanted a language to play with, with things I could do in short bursts, and that was accessible (practically and financially). I found that Say Something in Welsh now have a program called AutoMagic, which gives you short sentences in English and prompts you to produce them in Welsh. You can do as little as one sentence at a time. I gave it a try and have been enjoying it. I’ve been supplementing it with a user-produced course on Memrise that supports the official Learn Welsh course, which is freely available online. It’s also obviously easy to get Welsh TV and radio within the UK. Also, I’m unlikely to be travelling anywhere overseas in the next couple of years, but Wales should be an option sooner!

[Caromarlyse]

Still not doing great but still did a bit of language stuff in January.

French: Just watched some episodes of Le dessous des cartes. Great programme.

German: Read Rachesommer by Andreas Gruber and started the next book in the same series (Walter Pulaski).

Portuguese: Read A biblioteca de sonhos secretos by Michiko Aoyama and Antes que o café esfrie by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Both are translations. I enjoyed the first one a lot; the second less so until the final 15% of the book (I'm glad I pushed through!).

Russian: The usual Russian with Max videos and podcasts. I also started using Lingopie to watch Better than us - having dual subtitles is quite a help and has made some new words stick.

Welsh: I've done the SSIW Automagic tutor for half an hour about half of the days, and then alongside that have been learning vocab from the Learn Welsh textbook in Memrise (and going through the textbook chapter itself afterwards). I've finished chapter 6. I've also dabbled in watching things on S4C (with English subtitles).

[DaveAgain]

FRENCH
I read:
- L’élégance du hérisson by Muriel Barbery

I also continued to listen to podcasts, but also continued to struggle to find things to listen to that I enjoyed.

I was listening to an interview with Muriel Barbery yesterday. Perhaps you'd like that?

[Caromarlyse]

[/quote]I was listening to an interview with Muriel Barbery yesterday. Perhaps you'd like that?[/quote]

That looks really interesting, thank you. I shall definitely have a listen.

[Caromarlyse]

Not much changed in February: still not doing great but still did a bit of language stuff!

French: Just listened to the first two episodes of the podcast recommended above. I learnt of the Miroir miroir podcast, and intend to dive into some of the episodes this month: https://www.binge.audio/podcast/miroirmiroir

German: Read Racheherbst, Rachewinter, and Rachefruehling by Andreas Gruber and thereby finished the series! I also listened to some podcasts but I kept falling asleep when they were on so it probably doesn't count...

Portuguese: Possibly nothing... I'm probably going to read something in Portuguese next, though - I think I've satisfied my thirst for Krimis for the moment...

Russian: Just Russian with Max videos and podcasts and Better than us episodes.

Welsh: Not so much of the SSIW Automagic tutor this month, but I did get to the end of chapter 8 of the Learn Welsh textbook. That's about a quarter of the way through A1. I stopped at that point to consolidate and to start my first Welsh book: Am ddiwrnodd! (a graded reader). I've been using the community Memrise course to learn the vocab from the course as I go. It is not perfect but quite useful. I found transcripts online for the listening pieces at the end of each chapter of the textbook - very necessary as the difficulty has ramped up pretty quickly. I've also bought the Routledge basic Welsh grammar book as the textbook isn't that explicit. I never love Routledge's grammar books, though, so I'm not finding it as helpful as it could be. However, there's not many options out there so it will have to do. I'm going to move onto chapter 9 and continue with SSIW now, rather than strive for perfection with what I've studied already. I also watched a few more programmes on S4C.

[Caromarlyse]

March: overall summary still as above, really.

French: I started to watch En place (Represent) - watchable but not amazing. I'm also halfway through Octobre (The chestnut man) by Søren Sveistrup, which is just the page turner I need right now.

German: I continued my new habit of falling asleep whilst listening to German podcasts. I forgot to mention above that my new German friend sends me frequent voice notes in German, so at least I'm getting some exposure to German little and often.

Portuguese: I read Bem-vindos à livraria Hyunam-dong by Hwang Bo-Reum.

Russian: I finished Лучше, чем люди (Better than us) and started Эпидемия (To the lake). I also started reading (in English) A gentleman in Moscow, which I'm enjoying a lot (and under pressure to finish so I can watch the TV programme). I also did some tiny bits of Russian with Max - I need to get back into the habit.

Welsh: A bit of the SSIW Automagic tutor, then I focused on vocabulary learning given I'm using Memrise and the status of community courses on there is up in the air (and I'd like to get through as much as possible before they disappear altogether). I got to the end of chapter 12 of the Learn Welsh textbook as regards vocabulary (not the exercises). The course has individual words plus whole sentences to practise verb forms, so I'm finding it very helpful. I also finished Am ddiwrnodd! as well as reading Blacmêl (both graded readers, and the audio is available for both also).

[Caromarlyse]

April and May

I continue to be quite unwell, so things happen slowly.

French: I finished watching En place and have started watching Family Business. I finished (and enjoyed) Octobre by Søren Sveistrup. I also read Promis, juré by Isabelle Lagarrigue, which was the stories of three individuals chosen to serve on a jury, and less about the trial than about their lives, relationships with each other, and how the latter and the trial impacted on their future paths.

German: I continue to receive regular voice notes and not to listen to podcasts. I have started Monster by Nele Neuhaus, though. I made a half-hearted attempt to do some exercises from Sag's besser!, which I borrowed from an online library. Some of my knowledge of verb conjugations is a bit shaky...

Portuguese: Nothing...

Russian: I finished (in English) A gentleman in Moscow, which I loved. I also watched some Russian with Max videos. I did set up a Clozemaster account and did some work with Russian sentences, but I'm not sure I love it. All in all, not much, which is less than ideal.

Welsh: A bit of the SSIW Automagic tutor, then more vocabulary learning on Memrise. I've completed half of the Learn Welsh A1 (mynediad) course, including all of the vocabulary, listening exercises, and "homework" exercises. I spent quite a lot of time revising rather than moving on to begin the next half (which I've just started over the last few days). Memrise has continued to be quite helpful though, having moved onto the second half of A1, I've discovered that the Northern Welsh Memrise course that I'm using has the first two units in this half missing. I'm using the Southern Welsh course instead, but choosing to "ignore" the sentences that use a different structure to the one that the Northern textbook is giving me, to avoid too much confusion. I've discovered that the Southern course on Memrise gets you to practise the plurals of nouns too, which the Northern course omitted. That's a bit annoying, but the A1 course (i.e. in the textbook, not on Memrise) generally has quite a lot of repetition built in, so I'm hoping there will be opportunities to continue to practise the vocabulary I've already learnt. I also read Agor y drws and Gorau glas, another couple of graded readers (with audio). I enjoyed these a lot: it was very rewarding to be able to read along with the audio pretty easily.

[MorkTheFiddle]

My wishes are with you. Get well soon.

[Caromarlyse]

June

The first three weeks of the month I felt pretty dreadful (this is British understatement). Then a few days of feeling not too bad, relatively speaking, before going back down again, albeit nowhere near as low as at the beginning of the month. Sigh.

French: I continued watching Family Business, which is very farcical even by the standards of French shows on Netflix. I read Souviens-toi des abeilles by Zineb Menoukar, which taught me the very useful verbs butiner (to gather pollen), pondre (to lay (an egg) and traire (to milk (eg a goat), as well as rucher/ruche (apiary/bee hive) and gourde (flask). It was a paean to Inzerki, a village in Morocco. The apiary in the story exists in real life; it was originally built in 1520. It's massive: https://explore-agadirsoussmassa.com/en/the-apiary-of-inzerki-honey-cooperative/

German: As before, I continue to receive regular voice notes. I also listened to quite a few podcasts. I finished Monster by Nele Neuhaus, the 13th in a series that I've been reading since 2019/2020. I have others in the series that I like a lot more. I continued (very slowly) with some exercises from Sag's besser!.

Portuguese: Nothing again...

Russian: I watched some Russian with Max videos. When I was feeling a little better I took out some notes from where I'd left off and went through those a bit.

Welsh: As last month, a bit of the SSIW Automagic tutor, then more vocabulary learning on Memrise. I'm on chapter 19 (of 28) of the Learn Welsh A1 (mynediad) course. I also read Gangsters yn y glaw, another graded reader (with audio).

[Caromarlyse]

July

French: I've given up watching Family Business and ended up not watching/listening to anything this month. I read Meutre mode d'emploi - tome 2 by Holly Jackson, a translation from the English A good girl's guide to murder. There's a BBC adaptation of the first book on TV at the moment, but I didn't enjoy it and gave up after the second episode. I'm much more of a reader than a TV or film fan. I also read Le sourire aux livres by Cynthia Kafka.

German: As before, I continue to receive regular voice notes. No podcasts though. I've started Schlüssel 17 by Marc Raabe. He's a new author to me; I wanted a new Krimi series, having exhausted the offerings of my four usual authors, and this one seemed to have good reviews. I continued with some exercises from Sag's besser!. I've just finished exercise 40, so have done exercises on verbs (irregulars, with prepositions, passive), participles, and Konjunktiv II and I. In theory I know all this stuff already but it's been good in filling some little holes.

Portuguese: Nothing again...

Russian: Argh, no. I'm having a bit of a mental block here.

Welsh: Quite a bit of the SSIW Automagic tutor, then more vocabulary learning on Memrise. I only got to the start of chapter 21 (of 28) of the Learn Welsh A1 (mynediad) course as I needed time to embed the nasal mutation patterns. I also kept getting so many Memrise reviews that I didn't have time/energy to learn new words.